Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

W orld Champio nsh ip R o a d Race Series Round 3 : Spanish Grand P r ix victory on th e radically improved It al jet, wa s slow ed by fuel starvation , and on e la p la ter Gi l er a 's M an uel Poggiali fell at the sam e corner as (Ji, in che s beh ind eventual winner Masao Azum a. Se c ond eventua lly went to L u c i o C ecchi nello , w h o pulled th rou gh after being left beh in d at the start . wi t h Gin o Bors o i t hi rd. after dropp ing back from th e front group. 500cc GRAND PRIX Abe took the jump, fro m Rossi, Naka no and an i n sp ir e d van den Goor berqh , but by the end of the lap Rossi was in front, wit h Roberts holding sta tion in fifth ahea d of Capirossi. Van den Goorbergh 's decline started on th e second la p . It l oo ked as though he was short of spe ed on the stra ight . but he denied it. "In fact it was the ha ndling, espe ci ally with a full ta nk ." van den Goorbe rgh sa id . " T he bike wa s runn in g wid e and peopl e ke pt co ming underneath me at every co rn er. " Soon Rossi was pulling clea r. But Abe was going wit h him. and to the surprise of all stayed ri ght th ere until the 14th lap . At that point, Rossi said lat er, "I was wondering if I should let him lead for a while when I ran wid e into the ha irpin ." Abe was th rough and in the lead . For the next seven laps he sta yed there, but with absolutely no co m fort zone. It looked as though Rossi was p laying with him, holding tighter li nes and showing him his front wheel first one side and th en the oth er. Th en he dived past easily into the final ha irp in , and pulled away apparentl y at will . Abe decided not to try and chase him. " I was go ing well at th e start , but then m y front tire started push ing ," the Japanes e star said . " I didn't wa nt to crash - this is m y team's home race, so I just tri ed to get to the fin ish. " Nakano had bee n gradua ll y drop p ing back from the first lap, and on the fourth an eag er Capirossi p ow er ed pa st on th e str ai g h t an d set ab out ch as ing th e t wo up fron t . He wa s circulating a little qu icker , but said l at er : " I c o u l d n ' t get a good rhythm because I was having to pu sh so hard. " Ev ery time he took a tenth or two , he'd lose it again with a slip next time around. Then , j ust after half distance. he did run right off the track , recovering to rejoin in ninth , an y hopes of the lead now gone. "It was a p it y , because Valentino was not at th e li mit and in two laps I w ould have caught him , " he sa id later, rather pointl essly. Nakano .h eld fo urth t o the fin ish , b ut was preser ved from a mid-race attack by Roberts, less than a second beh ind but in no position to attack, sin ce he had his hands full fend in g off th e cl ose attentions of a pack of V- fours. Ba rros had headed the p ursu it in th e earl y stages , B i a g g i rig h t beh ind , then Ukawa and Mc Co y , with C r l v ll le catching up stea dily from beh ind. Biaggi made a flawed attack on lap 10. gaining one place on the wa y into a b end , onl y t o l o se t w o p lace s on the w ay ou t ag ai n. T wo laps later, he ran off into the gravel , rejoining in 12th. " I had set -up problems all weekend," he explained later . Criville was th e best of th e gang , wo rking his way through one p lace at a time to mount a successful att ack on Roberts into turn on e on the 13th lap and mo ving directly awa y to cl ose on Nakano. Soon afterwa rd Barro s also got by the Suzu ki. T h ere wa s j ust one more change up front, with the Sp an iard repeati ng his first -corner outbra kin g move on Nakano on lap 16 , now in third pl ace for his first rostrum since winning at Le Ma ns almost a year ago. So the y fin ished - Rossi dominant, Abe coming under pressure from Criv ille, Nakano ho lding off Uk awa, Barros a littl e way back. Rob erts was lucky that th ose beh ind were involved with each other, and finished quite alone. Almost fi ve second back , Cap irossi had b att led hi s w ay bac k t o eig hth, with McCoy close beh ind, rather puz zled to be having front - end -slid ing problems , an unusual turn o f events fo r the w he el - spin n in g A ustra l i an . G ibernau and B i agg i wer e clo se behind , Haga had lost touch , blaming his poor set -up and sliding tires. A long wa y back , van den Goorbe rgh had been trading b lows w ith Carlos Checa , riding a brave race after h is' heavy crash the day before. but slowing as th e pa in -killing inj ecti ons wore off so tha t the Dutchman eventu ally finished three-seconds clear. West was 15 t h , after outpacing a pers istent Leon Haslam to be the 24 n MAY 16. 2001 • cu e I e e _ s (Above) Norluki Haga (4 1) ran near the front in the early stages of the race, but faded back to 12th, blaming his poor set-up and sliding tires for the result. (Right) Starting w ith a bang: Valentino Ross i has won every 500cc GP this season. The Italian earned po le position and the fa st e st lap of the ra ce. He already ho lds a 3 1-po lnt le ad in the championship ove r No rl ck Abe afte r only three races. first V-twin home - Haruchika Aoki was ou t of the ra ce after a practice crash left hi m w i t h h i s arm i n a sl ing . Ga olois es Yamaha 's Oliv i er J a cqu e with d rew from the race on Sunday morning, still troubled by h is injured wr ist. Rossi now has a huge title lead of 3 1 po ints after just three races, with Abe now second with 44, the amazing Na kan o head ing Capi rossi , 3736, and Crivil le moving t o fifth with 33 . Biagg i has 29 with defen ding ch am p ion Roberts an equal seventh with McCoy , Ukawa an d Barros - all with 27 points ap iece. 250cc GRAND PRIX Katoh 's easy dom inanc e o f the 250cc class is a mirror of Ross i' s of the 500. Pole was na rrowl y achieved after a strugg le to get th e set -up right, but he to ok a narrow lead easily enough into the first corner, an d held the Apr il ias at bay , although t h ey pushed ha rd . Ha rada w a s the hardest p us her, and stayed impressive ly c lose, so that, when Katoh was a litt le wide into

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